Reevaluating reconstruction filters for path-searching tasks in 3D.

Abstract

In this paper, we present an experiment on stereoscopic direct volume rendering, aiming at understanding the relationship between the choice of reconstruction filter and participant performance on tasks requiring spatial understanding such as 3D path-searching. The focus of our study is on the impact on task performance of the post-aliasing and smoothing produced by the reconstruction filters. We evaluated five reconstruction filters, each under two different transfer functions and two different displays with a wide range of behaviours in terms of post-aliasing and smoothing. We found that path-searching tasks commonly found in the literature, and as the one we employed here, elicit bias in the responses which should be taken into account when analysing the results. Our analysis, which employed both standard statistical tests and techniques from signal detection theory, indicates that the choice of reconstruction filter affects some aspects of the spatial understanding of the scene.